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PABLO AMARINGO * ANTON BARBEAU * SUSAN BLACKMORE
RICHARD GLEN BOIRE * ERIK DAVIS * EARTH EROWID * FIRE EROWID
JOHN GILMORE * ALEX GREY * ALLYSON GREY * STANISLAV GROF
LORENZO HAGERTY * MARK HENSON * MARTINA HOFFMANN * JARON LANIER
MARK McCLOUD * RALPH METZNER * NAASKOW * DAVID E. NICHOLS
SHELDON NORBERG * MARK PESCE * STEVEE POSTMAN * V.S. RAMACHANDRAN
NICHOLAS SAND * WRYE SENTENTIA * ZOE SEVEN * ANN SHULGIN * SASHA SHULGIN
R.U. SIRIUS * MYRON STOLAROFF * FRED TOMASELLI * ROBERT VENOSA

PABLO AMARINGO was born in 1943 in Puerto Libertad, in the Peruvian Amazon region. He was ten years old when he first took ayahuasca--a visionary brew used in shamanism, made from the plants Banisteriopsis caapi (yagé) and Psychotria viridis (chacruna). A severe heart illness--and the magical treatment of this via ayahuasca--led Amaringo toward the life of a shaman, and he eventually became a powerful curandero--learning the icaros, or healing songs that the ayahuasca brew taught him. However, in 1977, Amaringo abandoned his vocation as a shaman, and he is now a painter and painting teacher at his Usko-Ayar school, where there is no charge for the students to learn how to paint. Amaringo has painted and described numerous ayahuasca visions, some of which have appeared in his book Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman. He is currently working on paintings of angels for a forthcoming book, as well as paintings that document the flora and fauna of Peru. See www.pabloamaringo.com to view some recent paintings.

ANTON BARBEAU is a singer/songwriter whose music has been compared to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope, Brian Eno, and David Bowie. With his esoteric and highly-personalized brand of psychedelic power-pop, his "mind-bending" stage show that borders on rock-shamanism, and his auto-neurotic humor, he is quietly yet quickly building a global fan-base. His new record, King of Missouri, recorded in England with psychedelic legends the Bevis Frond as backing band, is due in January 2003 in Europe on the Frond's Woronzow label. King of Missouri is Barbeau's seventh record and will be his fifth indie-label release since 1999. Barbeau has worked extensively with Loud Family/Game Theory guru Scott Miller, each appearing on the other's records. Barbeau can also count Andy Partridge of XTC, Stew/The Negro Problem and several Soft Boys among his fans. And yes, Adrienne is his cousin. In his hometown of Sacramento, Barbeau has won a number of SAMMIE Awards for Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and most recently the somewhat puzzling Most Popular Folk Singer Award. In 2001, a 23-hour "Anton-a-thon" was held in his honor with over 20 performers covering Barbeau's songs, and the sleep-deprived star performing sets with members of his various backing bands. Upcoming projects include a split CD with Kevin Seconds, Kepi (from the Groovie Ghoulies) and Jonah Matranga (onelinedrawing), due out on the Poprockit label. Barbeau is currently in the studio with Cake's Gabe Nelson working on a new psychedelipop album entitled In the Village of the Apple Sun. See www.antonbarbeau.com for more information, and click here to download some tunes.

SUSAN BLACKMORE is a former university psychology lecturer and now a free-lance writer and broadcaster living in Bristol, England. After getting a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) she decided to devote herself to parapsychology and obtained one of the first Ph.D.s in parapsychology in Britain, but after twenty-five years of increasing skepticism finally gave up studying the paranormal. Her research interests now include memetics, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and the effects of meditation. She has been practising Zen for many years. Sue writes for several magazines and newspapers, and is a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television. She is author of over sixty academic articles, forty book contributions and many book reviews. Her books include Beyond the Body (1982), Dying to Live (on near-death experiences, 1993), In Search of the Light (an autobiography, 1996), Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis, 1997) and most recently the best-selling The Meme Machine (1999) which has been translated into ten other languages. She is currently writing a textbook on consciousness due out in June 2003. See www.susanblackmore.co.uk.

RICHARD GLEN BOIRE is the Executive Director of the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics. Boire holds a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an expert on constitutional and criminal law, specializing in the jurisprudence of extraordinary states of consciousness, dissident thinking, and shamanic inebriants. As well, Boire is the author of several books exploring the law of visionary plants and drugs, and has written numerous articles on the topic, which have appeared in publications such as the California Lawyer, Daily Journal, Eleusis, The Entheogen Review, The Humanist, Independent Review, JAMA, The Journal of Cognitive Liberties, Left Curve, and The Resonance Project. From 1993­1999, Boire was the editor of The Entheogen Law Reporter, a quarterly journal on law, policy, commentary, and control theory of visionary plants and drugs.

ERIK DAVIS is the author of Techgnosis: Myth, Magic & Mystery in the Age of Information. As a freelance journalist, his articles and interviews have appeared in WIRED, The Village Voice, Gnosis, and other publications. He currently pens "The Posthuman Condition" column for Feed magazine, and he is a contributing editor to Trip magazine. He has lectured internationally on the topics of technoculture, visionary drugs, and the fringes of religion. See www.techgnosis.com.

EARTH EROWID co-created The Vaults of Erowid in 1996. This non-commercial web site collects data and publishes original research on the topic of visionary plants and drugs. The site receives over 250,000 unique visitors per month and has over 16,000 public documents and over 3000 images. Earth has written and edited hundreds of documents published on-line and his writing has also appeared in print publications such as The Resonance Project and The Entheogen Review, and he is a contributing editor to Trip magazine.

FIRE EROWID co-created The Vaults of Erowid in 1996 (see description above). She has been the primary designer and chief editor of the Erowid site since its inception. Fire has innovated and developed drug information designs that have been emulated across the web. Her work is cited by newspapers, books, school education programs, college classes, and professional seminars around the world. Her well-referenced article "70 Common Drug Myths," which appeared in The Resonance Project, exemplifies the dedication to straightforward, factual information that has become the hallmark of the Erowid web site. Fire is also a contributing editor to Trip magazine.
 

JOHN GILMORE is an entrepreneur and civil libertarian. He was an early employee of Sun Microsystems, early open source author, and co-created Cygnus Solutions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Cypherpunks, the DES Cracker, and the Internet's "alt" newsgroups. He's spent thirty years doing programming, hardware and software design, management, philosophy, philanthropy, and investment. He is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the USENIX Association, CodeWeavers, ReQuest, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. He's trying to get people to think more about the society they are building. His advocacy on drug policy aims to reduce the immense harm caused by current attempts to control the mental states of free citizens. His advocacy on encryption policy aims to improve public understanding of this fundamental technology for privacy and accountability in open societies. His efforts on intellectual property policy seek to create a healthy balance among the rights of creators, readers, middlemen, competitors, critics, and archivists. For more information, click here.

ALEX GREY is a visionary artist best known for his depictions of the human body that "x-ray" the multiple layers of reality, revealing the complex integration of body, mind, and spirit. His paintings have been featured on the cover of albums by the Beastie Boys and Tool, in Newsweek magazine, on the Discovery Channel, rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid, and have been exhibited throughout the world. His books include Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey, his philosophical text, The Mission of Art, and the recent Transfigurations. Sounds True released The Visionary Artist, an audiotape of Alex's art, philosophy, and vision practices. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Allyson Grey and their daughter, actress Zena Lotus Grey. See www.alexgrey.com and www.sacredmirrors.com.

ALLYSON GREY is a visionary artist who combines the elements of Chaos, Order, and a Secret Writing into her abstract sacred geometry. She has BA and MA degrees in Fine Arts, and has exhibited solo shows at Stux Gallery and O.K. Harris Gallery in NYC, among others. Commissions of permanent public works include a 24-foor mural at the First Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts, and her paintings are collected by corporations and individuals. Living in Brooklyn, NY, she paints and collaborates with her husband Alex Grey and their daughter, actress Zena Lotus Grey. See www.allysongrey.com.

STANISLAV GROF is a psychiatrist with more than forty-five years of experience in research of non-ordinary states of consciousness induced by psychedelic substances and various non-pharmacological methods. Currently, he is Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. Grof conducts professional training programs in holotropic breathwork and transpersonal psychology, and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association. Among his publications are over 100 papers in professional journals and the books LSD Psychotherapy; The Adventure of Self-Discovery; Beyond the Brain; The Cosmic Game; Psychology of the Future; Beyond Death; and The Stormy Search for the Self (the last two with Christina Grof).

LORENZO HAGERTY is a writer, keynote speaker, and Internet/e-Commerce consultant, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctor (law) degree from the University of Houston. Hagerty has had an eclectic career including sailing instructor, Naval officer, hot air balloon pilot, engineer, lawyer, and motivational speaker. His first book, The Spirit of the Internet: Speculations on the Evolution of Global Consciousness, has been making waves in the "entheogen community," due to its embracing of psychedelic thinking. He is currently working on his second book. Hagerty is also the founder of the Matrix Masters web site, whose aim is "to provoke an unmuffled, ungagged, and unsilenced generation of world citizens into speaking up and taking the actions necessary to wrest control from the privileged few and to reclaim this planet in the name of all the humans, animals, plants, and other forms of life who share its bounty."

MARK HENSON was born in California, and formally educated with a degree in Fine Arts from UC-Davis. He knew he wanted to be an artist when he was a child and has always been able to touch the core of creativity. Henson paints in the classical tradition, millions of brush strokes per painting. He stretches and prepares his own canvas. He mats and frames all of his reproductions. He loves to paint large, priding himself in just squeaking the paintings through the doors. He has traveled the world, spending time in the Far East and Central America. His work beautifully captures aspects of sexuality, spirituality, and expanded consciousness. See www.sacredlight.to for examples of his art.

MARTINA HOFFMANN was born in Germany, grew up in Cameroon, West Africa, and completed her formal education in Germany were she majored in art with professor Kiefer (father of Anselm Kiefer) and studied sculpting at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Since that time, she has worked professionally as a painter and sculptor. For the past eight years, Hoffmann has taught painting workshops with her husband, Robert Venosa at Esalen in Big Sur/California; the California Institute of Integral Studies; the Skyros Institute on the island of Skyros/Greece; the Skyros Institute in Tobago; the Santa Reparata School Of Art in Florence/Italy; on the Big Island in Hawaii; as well as in Cadaques/Spain, and Boulder/Colorado. Hoffmann's paintings are directly inspired by the realms of the imagination, dreams, the unconscious, and the superconscious. "Bringing back these images is about communication. The painting becomes the otherworldly blueprint from which we can translate into human context. The message is simple: 'If we allow it, there is no limit to form and content.' This holds the potential for us to be able to create a reality as beautiful, healthy and strong as our imagination permits" (MAPS Bulletin, Spring 2002). Hoffmann's work has been exhibited internationally, as well as being published in books such as One Source, Sacred Journeys, The Return of The Great Goddess, Celebrating Women's Spirituality, Noospheres, Illuminatus, Drinking Lightning, and the magazines, Magical Blend, Shaman's Drum, Art Visionary, MAPS Bulletin, Well Being, Expose, We'Moon, and Nexus. Of her art, the Father of LSD Albert Hofmann has remarked: "The imagery shows your artistry in painting and is sufficient to produce amazement and admiration for which words fail me." See www.martinahoffmann.com for examples of her art.

JARON LANIER is a computer scientist, composer, musician, visual artist, and author. He serves as the Lead Scientist of the National Tele-immersion Initiative (a coalition of research universities studying advanced applications for Internet 2), and is a visiting faculty member at numerous schools. He's the Chief Scientist of Eyematic Interfaces, which researches computer vision. He serves as an advisor for the Board of Councilors of the University of Southern California, Medical Media Systems, Microdisplay Corporation, and NY3D. Lanier's "Phenotropics" rejects traditional protocol-based approaches in favor of statistical and pattern-recognition techniques to bind software components together in order to improve large scale reliability. Lanier, who coined the term "virtual reality" is best known for his work in VR development. In the early '80s he founded VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products. In the late '80s he lead the team that developed the first implementations of multi-person virtual worlds using head-mounted displays, for both local and wide area networks, as well as the first "avatar" representations of users within such systems. While at VPL, he co-developed the first implementations of virtual reality applications in surgical simulation, vehicle interior prototyping, virtual sets for TV production, and other areas. He lead the team that developed the first widely-used software platform architecture for immersive VR applications. Sun Microsystems acquired VPL's seminal portfolio of patents related to VR and networked 3-D graphics in 1999. Lanier's writings address the topics of high-technology business, the social impact of technological practices, the philosophy of consciousness and information, Internet politics, and the future of humanism. He has been working on his book Technology and the Future of the Human Soul, and his writing has appeared in numerous journals. He's regularly featured on TV shows and has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Encyclopaedia Britannica includes him in its list of history's 300 or so greatest inventors. For more information, click here.

MARK McCLOUD is an artist and ex-art professor who for nearly three decades has been collecting perforated blotter art used to distribute LSD. He has acted as a curator for numerous exhibits of this art, showing parts of his collection (likely the world's largest), and has won two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. (Most of his collection is made up of prints that were never dosed, and those that may have been are exposed to ultraviolet radiation which neutralizes any acid that they might have contained.) According to McCloud, "The first blotter known was a pair of some guy's underwear that was used to clean up a spill. It was passed around from person to person for months." Due to his collection of unique American Folk Art, McCloud has been threatened, set up, and busted by government authorities, as well as being subject to nearly constant surveillance. McCloud was acquitted from an LSD conspiracy charge in 1992, only to be charged again, and again acquitted in 2001.

RALPH METZNER has been exploring states of consciousness and transformational practices for over thirty years. He is a psychotherapist and a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he teaches courses on altered states of consciousness and ecopsychology. He is the author of over 100 journal articles and several books, including The Psychedelic Experience (with Leary and Alpert), Maps of Consciousness, The Well of Remembrance, and The Unfolding Self. He is co-founder and president of the Green Earth Foundation, an educational organization devoted to the healing and harmonizing of the relations between humanity and the Earth. His two most recent books are: Green Psychology--Transforming our Relationship to the Earth and an edited volume Ayahuasca--Human Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature. He is currently preparing a companion volume on Teonanácatl.

NAASKOW (DJ rezin) holds a BA in Communication Theory and Cultural Studies and currently represents the British Columbia-based downtempo label Interchill records as well as the underground collective the Green Samurai Clan. As an events co-ordinator for Invisible Productions, he conceptualized and produced a conference on altered states of consciousness, emergent mythology and transformative culture at the BOOM Festival in Portugal last summer as part of the ongoing project of creating integrative contexts in which to understand and assess the implications and applications of the psychedelic experience. As a DJ he has been exploring the healing and trance-inducing capacity of music for the past seven years, crafting journeys into sound from post-rave dance floors to chill rooms to entheogenic ritual spaces. For the Mind States IV conference, he will be serving up an organic electronic blend of fresh grooves and global atmospherics during the intermissions.

DAVID E. NICHOLS received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1969 from the University of Cincinnati, and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 1973 from the University of Iowa. Following post-doctoral work in pharmacology he joined the faculty in Medicinal Chemistry at Purdue University, where he is currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Nichols is also the president and founder of the Heffter Research Institute. Nichols has published more than 225 research articles, book chapters, and invited reviews on various aspects of the medicinal chemistry and neuropharmacology of centrally-active drugs. He seeks to understand how changes in brain neurochemistry affect behavior. His group is presently the only one in the world that continues to study the psychopharmacology of LSD analogues, and the synthesis for psilocybin developed in his laboratory is the one now used for the commercial preparation of that material. He is one of the foremost authorities on the mechanism of action of psychedelics and related substances. Also among his publications are nearly three dozen studies elucidating details both of the mechanism of action of MDMA and of the biochemical events related to its neurotoxic effects in animals. Nichols coined the term "entactogen" to describe the unique psychopharmacological effects of MDMA and related compounds.

SHELDON NORBERG is the author/performer of the memoir/solo-show Confessions of a Dope Dealer. His lifelong interest in the mind and metaphysics got an early jump-start when he began transcendental meditation at the age of ten. As an American, however, he found the only acceptable metaphysical work available to be in drug dealing, a career that he took to its extremes. A decade of training in meditation, energy work, and Chinese medicine has since repaired him enough to tell his story (one of the highs and inevitable lows of being too high), and get back on the path of holotropic breathwork and shamanism. A harm reduction advocate, he is currently touring his show and lectures to colleges, and has taught in-depth drug education classes to local progressive high schools.

MARK PESCE is internationally renowned as a writer, educator and as the man who brought virtual reality into the World Wide Web. He has been exploring the frontiers of the future for over two decades. The author of five books, Pesce is widely respected as a futurist, philosopher, and thinker who possesses vision paired with a unique ability to translate abstract concepts into concrete explanations. Mainstream publications such as Forbes ASAP, TIME Digital, WIRED and The New York Times have profiled him and his views on the future. A well-respected journalist, Pesce has written for WIRED, Feed, Salon, and PC Magazine, and serves on the editorial board of Trip magazine. For more, see Pesce's homepage and www.playfulworld.com.

STEVEE POSTMAN is a digital artist living in Portland, Oregon. Working with the union of technology and the organic, he creates neo-pagan, faerie inspired visual transmissions. He is the creator of The Cosmic Tribe Tarot, of which artist Alex Grey has commented: "Stevee's art has the convincing feel of having been created by one who has been to the other side and can harness the most sophisticated technology to articulate the patterns of infinity and archetypal powers which are the fabirc of our divine imagination. His Tarot deck should become an instant classic." Postman's work has appeared in periodicals such as Gnosis, Magical Blend, RFD, MAPS Bulletin, on several book covers, and in numerous galleries. He designed the cover of Mickey Heart's CD Supralingua, and he has created the promotional art for all four Mind States conferences. See www.stevee.com for examples of his art.

VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute. Ramachandran obtained his M.D. from Stanley Medical College and subsequently a Ph.D. from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Ramachandran's early research was on visual perception but he is best known for his work in Neurology. He is a fellow of the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla and a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Ramachandran is a trustee for the San Diego museum of art and has lectured widely on art, visual perception and the brain. He has published over 120 papers in scientific journals (including three invited review articles in the Scientific American), is Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Human Behaviour and author of the critically acclaimed book Phantoms in the Brain that has been translated into eight languages and formed the basis for a two-part series on Channel Four TV UK and a one-hour PBS special in USA. Newsweek magazine recently named him a member of "The Century Club," one of the "hundred most prominent people to watch in the next century."

NICHOLAS SAND is a former unauthorized chemist and low-profile hero of the psychedelic underground. For the last four decades he has been a student of yoga, the Kabballah, meditation, Krishna consciousness, Sufism, aikido, T'ai Chi, and Zen, as well as having studied the teachings of Krishnamurti, Milarepa, Ramakrishna, Rajneesh, and other great philosophers. In the early years of psychedelic exploration, Sand was one of the original guides at the Millbrook commune, where thousands of individuals were turned on. From 1996 until late 2000, he was a prisoner of the War on Drugs--first in Canada and then in the USA. He is currently working on his forthcoming book, Psychedelic Secrets.

WRYE SENTENTIA is co-director of the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, where she oversees projects that aim to focus public attention on neuro-technologies in relation to individual rights of mind, as well as neuroethical concerns about trends in psychopharmacology. In Summer 2002, she directed the development of a university course and curriculum on "Cognitive Liberty & Neuroethics." She has published articles and papers on topics ranging from 18th century utopian literature to 21st century forms of mental surveillance, and has provided comments to the President's Council on Bioethics on the topic of mind-enhancing technologies and drugs. Sententia holds an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and a Master's degree in Comparative Literature; she is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis on cyber-punk science fiction literature, dissident tactics, and real world mind technologies at the University of California, Davis.

ZOE SEVEN is an international lecturer, author, and cartographer of altered states of consciousness. His primary area of research is "techno-shamanism," a fusion of the use of psychoactive plants and compounds with brainwave technology devices. He is the author of the book, Into the Void, which describes his research and experiments in the late 1990s (see www.zoe7.com). His forthcoming book, Back from the Void (due out later this year), is the second installment of his on-going trilogy. He has written for entheogen and neuro-technology related magazines, has been interviewed on radio and television programs, and will be featured in an upcoming documentary film dealing with the topic of consciousness. Recently he traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, and lectured at the Boom Festival, and he is a core staff member at the Ayahuasca Healing Retreat seminars in Brazil.

ANN SHULGIN is a researcher and writer who—for a time, while they were still legal—worked with psychedelics such as MDMA and 2C-B as a lay-therapist. Her unique insight into the beneficial effects that psychedelics can have is invaluable. With her husband Sasha, she has co-authored the books Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved: A Chemical Love Story (PIHKAL) and the long-anticipated sequel, Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved: The Continuation (TIHKAL), and is currently working on a forthcoming book that dabbles in cactus quinoline alkaloids, tentatively titled Book 3.

SASHA SHULGIN is a pharmacologist and chemist who has synthesized and bioassayed hundreds of psychoactive compounds. He has written the book Controlled Substances: A Chemical & Legal Guide to Federal Drug Laws, and along with his wife Ann, he co-authored the books PIHKAL and TIHKAL. He is currently working on a forthcoming book that dabbles in cactus quinoline alkaloids, tentatively titled Book 3, and also spends his time fielding questions for "Ask Dr. Shulgin" on the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics web site.

R.U. SIRIUS is best known as the former editor-in-chief of the acclaimed Mondo 2000. His books include How to Mutate and Take Over the World, The Cyberpunk's Handbook, and 21st Century Revolutionary, and he co-wrote Design for Dying with Timothy Leary. Sirius is currently the executive editor of the political magazine The Thresher, and senior editor of DigIt, a digital culture magazine. He has written on the topics of cyberculture, smart drugs, surveillance, nanotechnology, psychedelics, and his work has appeared in magazines such as 21C, Rolling Stone, and on-line at Salon.com and the Disinformation web site. He is the founder of the Revolution Party, and as such campaigned to be President of the United States in 2000 (apparently losing due to some miscounted votes, possibly in Florida). Writing and interviews with Sirius are posted at www.revolting.com/media. He is currently working on a history book called Counter Cultures Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House for Villard/Random House.

MYRON STOLAROFF is one of the psychedelic community's "great elders," and he was involved in the early scientific study of the effects of LSD at a time when this compound was still legally available. Active in consciousness studies for over 40 years, Stolaroff has published numerous papers relating to psychedelics, as well as two books: Thanatos to Eros: Thirty-five Years of Psychedelic Exploration, which details his own entheogenic explorations, and The Secret Chief: Conversations with a Pioneer of the Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement. Stolaroff is a strong advocate of developing a meditation practice to deepen and integrate psychedelic experiences, as described in his Journal of Humanistic Psychology paper "Are Psychedelics Useful in the Practice of Buddhism?"

FRED TOMASELLI assembles hybrid pictures out of various materials, including paint, pills, hallucinogenic plants, and photo collage. Encapsulated in tamperproof resin, these arraigned substances alter perception by traveling to the brain through the act of seeing. His work is inspired by the ideal that painting is both a mirror on the world and a window to another reality. His art blurs the distinction between the real and the artificial and is shaped by the chemical sublime. Fred's work has been seen at numerous institutions around the world including a recent survey show at the Palm Beach ICA which then traveled to Site Santa Fe. He had a recent solo show at the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, New York which traveled to the Indianapolis Art Museum. His work has been included in the Corcoran, Lyon, Berlin and Liverpool Biennials. He's also participated in numerous museum group shows such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum. He's had solo gallery shows at Jack Tilton Gallery, New York; Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles; Galleri Anne de Villepiox, Paris; Gallerie Gebaure, Berlin; and White Cube, London. He is represented by the James Cohan Galley, New York where his next solo show will open in May. To view some of Fred's art online, click here.

ROBERT VENOSA has had his Fantastic Realism art exhibited worldwide and it is represented in major collections, including those of noted museums, rock stars and European aristocracy. In addition to painting, sculpting and film design--pre-sketches and conceptual design for the movies Dune and Fire in the Sky for Paramount Pictures, and Race for Atlantis for IMAX--Venosa's work has been the subject of three books, with the most recent, Illuminatus, featuring text by Terence McKenna. New York City born, Venosa was transported into the world of fine art in the late 1960s after having experimented with psychedelics and having seen the work of the Fantastic Realists--Ernst Fuchs and Mati Klarwein in particular--both of whom he eventually met and studied under. Along with Martina Hoffmann, Venosa also devotes a few weeks each year giving workshops at such institutes and locations as Naropa/Boulder; the Ayahuasca Healing retreat center in Manaus/Brazil; the Art Academy in Florence/Italy; Skyros Institute on the island of Skyros/Greece; Villa Arenella in Cadaques/Spain; Paradise Point in Kona/Hawaii; and Esalen at Big Sur/California. Of his work, Salvador Dali has said, "Bravo Venosa! Dali is pleased to see spiritual madness painted with such a fine technique." While Terence McKenna has said, "Robert Venosa's imagery is a portal into the mescaline canyons of the imagination. His is an informed yet visionary grasp of the icons of the spiritual and erotic." Presently Venosa maintains studios in both Boulder, Colorado, and Cadaques, Spain. See www.venosa.com for examples of his art.